WHO chief Tedros claims number of weekly COVID deaths around the world drops to new low

The number of fatalities reported due to COVID across the world have witnessed a decline and are now at the lowest level in nearly a year. Addressing a press briefing in Geneva on 13 October, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus informed that the number of coronavirus cases continues to witness a decline. Furthermore, he informed that the number of reported deaths from COVID are also declining except for Europe. 

The WHO Chief in the press briefing informed that the number of deaths reported due to COVID continues to decline but the number is still "unacceptably high level." He said that almost 50,000 deaths are being reported due to coronavirus across the world and he highlighted that the "real number is certainly higher." Moreover, he said that the deaths due to COVID contagion are declining except in Europe as several countries are facing a fresh wave of coronavirus cases and deaths. 

"The number of reported deaths from COVID-19 continues to decline and is now at its lowest level in almost a year", the WHO Chief said in the press briefing.

"Deaths are declining in every region except Europe, where several countries are facing fresh waves of cases and deaths," Tedros added.

Furthermore, he mentioned that deaths due to COVID were also reported in countries, where the people have the least access to vaccination. Expressing his views about COVID vaccination across the globe, the WHO chief informed that 56 countries were excluded from the international vaccine marketplace. He underscored that these countries have not been able to vaccinate 10 per cent of their populations by the end of September, most of them are in Africa. He expressed concern that more countries are expected to not accomplish the goal of vaccinating 40 per cent of their population by the end of 2021. 

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), as of 13 October 2021, there have been 238,521,855 confirmed cases of COVID-19 across the world. Globally, the WHO has reported 4,863,818 deaths due to COVID. As of 10 October 2021, a total of 6,364,021,792 vaccine doses have been administered. 

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